Thank you for visiting Common Ground-Common Sense Internet Town Meeting for Progressives, Moderates and Independents. Please take a moment to review the rules before you get started.
Common Ground-Common Sense.org was created in response to what we see as an overwhelming desire for civil discussion among political progressives, moderates, and independents. The issues that affect our lives are complex and grave. Here is your opportunity to really get into those issues. The sound of you typing on your keyboard is the sound of 21st Century Democracy in action!
Our intent is to run a forum where members are respectful of each other. As noted below, any discussion of these rules is handled using the grievance procedure. We appreciate your cooperation in observing these rules, and welcome your participation in a well-informed, dynamic community of individuals who are focused on the goal of finding consensus on important issues.
Michael Sullivan
Administrator
FORUM RULES:
DISCLAIMER
Messages posted in Common Ground-Common Sense.org are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Common Ground-Common Sense.org. We are not responsible for any messages posted by members, do not vouch for or warrant their accuracy, completeness or usefulness, and are not responsible for their contents.
WHO IS WELCOME
Broadly stated, the goals of this forum are to further civil discussion of the issues we face as a Nation. If your intention is to disrupt this discussion or to deride your fellow forum members you should not participate in this discussion site. You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not post any material that is in violation of the forum rules.
CONCERNING ISSUES OF FREE SPEECH AND CENSORSHIP
Your membership in this community is voluntary and the requirement of compliance with forum rules is in no way a restriction of anyones free speech. Members should understand that paid subscriptions to CGCS do not allow them to circumvent this rule.
NONPARTICIPATION OPTION
As stated above, all members of Common Ground-Common Sense Internet Town Meeting have joined voluntarily. The moderators try their best to be fair, and to make this forum a welcoming place for members who want to be here. If you don't like Common Ground-Common Sense.org, the members of this forum, the moderators, the administrators or the forum rules, then you may choose to not participate. However, all paid subscriptions to CGCS are non-refundable.
FORUM MODERATORS
All of the moderators on this discussion board are volunteers. They provide their time and their good judgment to this forum free of charge. They do not make the rules; they only enforce the rules. They do not deserve to be treated harshly either publicly or privately. The moderators have broad discretion to act in the interests of maintaining the civility and goals of this discussion.
FORUM ADMINISTRATION
Common Ground-Common Sense.org administrators reserve the right to remove any message for any reason and take any actions necessary to maintain the civility and goals of this forum. The administrators ultimately decide all issues related to this forum. Administrators reserve the right to change the forum rules without prior notice and for any reason. If you think a moderator has acted inappropriately, please contact an administrator so we can address your concern.
CRITICISM OF MODERATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS
Our experience has taught us that the forum is an inappropriate venue for publicly discussing any problems you may have with the rules or the administration of the forum. Please contact the moderators or administrators privately by email if you have concerns about rules and administration. In order to respect the privacy of our members we do not discuss disciplinary actions with anyone but the member concerned.
HARASSMENT OF MODERATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS
If you have a problem with anything on this message board, it is very important that you follow the grievance procedure (see below). Once you have exhausted all 5 steps, you will have to live with the decision made by the administrators. Under no circumstances should you harass anyone on the moderating/administrative teams in any way. This includes, but is not limited to, sending numerous PMs or emails, using obscene or profane language directed at any member of the mod/admin teams, or making derisive statements about members of the mod/admin team on the public message board.
POSTING RESTRICTIONS
Repeated failure to follow forum rules will result in your membership privileges being limited or revoked. This may include requiring pre-approval of posts by a moderator, temporary suspension of topic start or posting permissions and/or denial of access to the e-mail system. Under any of these circumstances, revocation of privileges will not result in a refund or forwarding of any portion of the member's paid subscription to CGCS.
BANNING
Administrators have complete discretion to sanction any member, up to and including ending their membership. Depending on the nature of the problem, the member may not receive any notification prior to moderator action. Certain offenses or patterns of behavior are considered grounds for banning a member: repeated rules violations, obscenity, bigotry, threats, multiple accounts, deliberate disruptive behavior and abuse of e-mail system. Banning will not entitle a member to any refund of the CGCS subscription.
POST CONTENT
Choose appropriate language. "Flaming", insults, name-calling, and foul language are not acceptable. Any material (including topic titles, links, avatars, images and signatures) that, within our judgment, is hostile, harassing, defaming, derisive, offensive, abusive, or sexually oriented will not be allowed, and will result in the post being edited or removed from view. Abusive posts, name-calling and insults directed toward or about anyone based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or political party affiliation will not be tolerated. We do not allow personal attacks on other members either in public forums, or through our e-mail system.
CIVILITY
We promote a civil tone of discussion. Select language that is kind and respectful of others, even if you don't agree with their viewpoint or thoughts. Although our rules cannot specify every type of uncivil post, this does not imply that the administrators approve of disrespectful behavior. Please refrain from labeling members as trolls or deriding others for their party affiliation. Please contact a moderator if you feel that a member is being uncivil or breaking the forum rules, rather than responding in kind.
DIVISIVENESS
We do not suppress dissent among members, but we make a distinction between dissent and divisiveness. Our goal is to encourage dialogue among Americans with diverse political ideas and values, with an attempt to focus on the ideals we have in common. Topics and remarks that are, in our opinion, divisive will be edited or removed by a moderator.
If you support, overall, a right wing or neo-conservative agenda, we suggest you find another message board. Common Ground-Common Sense is intended for people who wish to join together with others like them to discuss ways to oppose that agenda.
BIGOTRY AND INTOLERANCE
We will never find common ground until we learn to respect and tolerate each others cultures, beliefs, opinions, and lifestyles. That goes for everyone: progressive and conservative, gays and straights, men and women, religious and non-religious, the minority and the majority. We all live in the same country and in the same world. If we cant learn to get along, we are no better than the opposition we seek to defeat.
When discussing race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, or religion, please exercise sensitivity toward others. Unambiguous expressions of bigotry will be deleted, and may result in the immediate banning of the individual responsible.
IMAGES AND AVATARS
Images and avatars that contain offensive, abusive, threatening, sexually oriented, or pornographic material will not be allowed, and will result in the image or avatar being removed from view. In addition, we ask that members use sensitivity and not post images containing graphic violence. This board has many young people involved and we wish to promote their involvement in our democracy. Material that parents would not wish their children to see is a general guide for what we consider inappropriate and although it is impossible to specify every potential problem, the administrators reserve the right to remove any image we consider inappropriate.
We request that our members use good judgment with the image feature on this board. Repeated use of images (such as their use in signature lines, or using them in quoting posts repeatedly) will result in larger bandwidth requirement, and therefore this behavior is discouraged.
LINKS AND ADVERTISEMENTS
This forum does not normally permit the posting of any advertisements or any links to or material from commercial websites. Links are permitted if posted in the body of your message, but we reserve the right to remove any we consider inappropriate. Blatant promotion of products or web sites is not permitted. Consistent inclusion of a link for the purposes of promotion of companies, products, or personal websites is not allowed in either post body or signature. Any exceptions are strictly at the discretion of the forum administrators.
TOPIC RELEVANCE AND LOCATION
Select the most appropriate Category, Forum or Topic in which to post your message. Topics or posts that are unrelated to politics or public policy are discouraged. Please take the time to look at all the forums and see where your topic should go. Proper topic placement is important because it keeps the Common Ground-Common Sense forum better organized, therefore easier to read and navigate for everyone. Topics move further down the page faster in busier forums, thus causing the topic to become inactive and archived sooner than it might be if it were placed in its proper Action or Issues forum. If your topic is placed in the wrong forum, a moderator may move it to the correct forum.
DUPLICATE TOPICS OR POSTS
Posting the same message across multiple topics and/or forums is prohibited. A moderator will remove duplicate posts or topics.
Moderators posting news articles are exempt from this rule because some important articles are relevant to more than one forum or subforum.
BUMPS OR KICKS
Posts should contain an actual message. "Bumps" or "kicks" to the top are not permitted and will be deleted. Posting an emoticon, or one word post is considered a kick/bump and is discouraged. The "no bumping" rule applies to each and every forum.
SECURITY THREATS
You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use this forum to engage in predatory behavior, stalking or to post any material which is threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of any law. You shall not upload, e-mail, post or transmit to, or distribute or otherwise publish through Common Ground-Common Sense.org any material which: constitutes or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense (including threats of unauthorized access to a computer or network), potentially give rise to civil liability (including claims of defamation and/or libel), or otherwise violate the local, state, or national laws of any country; Do not post unpublished information on troop movements, military maneuvers, or any other information which may compromise U.S. national security.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Remember that the general public can view all personal information in your user profile and posted messages. Before posting or editing your profile, make certain that you are posting information you want others to know. Anything you post will not be privileged or confidential nor will any replies to your postings. You may choose to deny other members the ability to send you e-mail via the forum by changing your e-mail settings in "My Controls". Also, when logging in you may choose to not appear on the active users list. Personal information from users is only what the user freely provides. Access to any personal information in our forum database is granted only to authorized Common Ground-Common Sense administrators..
PRIVACY OF OTHERS
Please do not post personal information about any person, even if that information is publicly available. You may post the public contact information for public figures or officials, but you may not post anyone's (including your own) private information. If you wish to share any personal information with another member, please do it by e-mail and it is entirely at your own discretion and risk.
COPYRIGHT
Please do not post copyrighted material obtained from any source without giving citation or specific references. Plagiarism in any form is prohibited.
SIGNATURES
Please limit the text in your signature line to only one paragraph, quote, idea, or comment. Posting links or images in your signature is not permitted.
USERNAMES
Account names must adhere to the general rules of this forum. Hostile, obscene, offensive, harassing or defamatory usernames will not be permitted. The use of e-mail addresses as usernames is prohibited for the protection of members privacy.
MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS
Multiple accounts are absolutely not allowed. Members are not permitted to create or use another screen name to avoid a revocation of posting privileges. Previously banned members will be immediately banned, regardless of behavior. Don't represent yourself as another person. If you are caught posting with multiple accounts, all will be suspended and/or banned. No refunds on paid subscriptions will be given for any banned account that was created for the purpose of circumventing our forum rules.
ABUSE OF E-MAIL AND PRIVATE MESSAGE SYSTEM
Members may not use their accounts here to spam other members, either via e-mail, private message, or any other messaging client. Posting the contents of an e-mail or private message without the sender's permission is not permitted. Abuse of the e-mail or private message system is considered a banning offense and we encourage members to report this type of activity to the moderating team or administrator.
GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
Any objections to moderator or administrator actions taken on the Common Ground-Common Sense Forum must be dealt with using the following grievance procedure:
1. If you disagree with a moderator's action on another member, it is up to that member to take it up with us. We do not discuss disciplinary actions with anyone but the member concerned out of respect for their privacy.
2. If you believe another member's post is uncivil or in violation of the meeting rules, please do not respond to the member in kind. Contact a moderator or administrator with a link to the post in question. This will NOT guarantee that we will see things your way however, because we can get complaints from members on both sides of heated debates. We let the rules guide us in these matters.
3. If you disagree with a moderator's action concerning yourself, it is required that you contact the moderator in question for clarification. We do not permit public criticism of the mods or admins and doing so will be considered an additional infraction.
4. If after communicating with a moderator, you are still dissatisfied you may contact any member of the administrating team.
5. Any decisions made by the administrative team are final. Attempts to circumvent this grievance procedure will be considered harassment and a banning offense.